Having considered the distinct
acts of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the sanctification
of the Church, we must now carefully enquire as to the Rule by
which all true holiness is determined, the Standard by which it
is weighed and to which it must be conformed. This is also of
deep importance, for if we mistake the line and plummet of holiness,
then all our efforts after it will be wide of the mark. On this
aspect of our subject there also prevails widespread ignorance
and confusion today, so that we are obliged to proceed slowly
and enter rather lengthily into it. If one class of our readers
sorely needed--for the strengthening of their faith and comfort
of their hearts--a somewhat full setting forth of the perfect
sanctification which believers have in Christ, another class of
our readers certainly require--for the illumination of their minds
and the searching of their conscience--a setting forth in detail
of the Divinely-provided "Rule."

In previous chapters we have
shown that holiness is the antithesis of sin, and therefore as
"sin is the transgression (a deviation from or violation
of) the Law" (1 John 3:4), holiness must be a conformity
to the Law. As "sin" is a general term to connote all
that is evil, foul, and morally loathsome, so "holiness"
is a general term to signify all that is good, pure, and morally
lovely. Holiness, like sin, has its root in the heart: external
actions are virtuous or vicious, praiseworthy or blameworthy,
as they express the desires, designs, and choices of the heart.
As all sin is a species of self-love--self-will, self-pleasing,
self-gratification--so all holiness consists of disinterested
or unselfish love--to God and our neighbour. 1 Corinthians 13
supplies a full and beautiful delineation of the nature of holiness:
substitute the term "holiness" for "charity"
(or love) all through the Chapter. As sin is the transgressing
of the Law, so love is the fulfilling of the Law (Rom. 13:10).

The spirituality and religion
of man in his original state consisted in a perfect conformity
to the Divine Law, which was the law of his nature (for he was
created in the image and likeness of God), with the addition of
positive precepts. But when man lost his innocence and became
guilty and depraved, he fell not only under the wrath of God,
but also under the dominion of sin. Consequently, he now needs
both a Redeemer, and a Sanctifier--and in the Gospel both are
provided. Alas that so often today only a half Gospel, a mutilated
Gospel, is being preached--whereby sinners are made "twofold
more the children of Hell" than they were before they heard
it! In the Gospel a way is revealed for our obtaining both pardoning
mercy and sanctifying grace. The Gospel presents Christ not only
as a Deliverer from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10), but also
as the Sanctifier of His Church (Eph. 5:26).

In His work of sanctifying
the Church Christ restores His people unto a conformity to the
Law. Before supplying proof of this statement, let us carefully
observe what it is which the Law requires of us. "Jesus said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the Law and the Prophets" (Matt. 22:37-40). Christ here
summed up the Ten Commandments in these two, and every duty enjoined
by the Law and inculcated by the Prophets is but a deduction or
amplification of these two, in which all are radically contained.
Here is, first, the duty required--love to God and our neighbour.
Second, the ground or reason of this duty--because He is the Lord
our God. Third, the measure of this duty--with all the heart.

The grand reason why God, the
alone Governor of the world, ever made the Law, requiring us to
love with all our hearts, was because it is, in its own nature,
infinitely just and fitting. The Law is an external and unalterable
Rule of Righteousness, which cannot be abrogated or altered in
the least iota, for it is an unchanging expression of God's immutable
moral character. To suppose that He would ever repeal or even
abate the Law--when the grounds and reasons of God's first making
it remain as forcible as ever, when that which it requires is
as just and meet as ever, and which it becomes Him as the moral
Ruler of the universe to require as much as ever--casts the highest
reproach upon all His glorious perfections. Such a horrible insinuation
could have originated nowhere else than in the foul mind of the
Fiend, the arch-enemy of God, and is to be rejected by us with
the utmost abhorrence.

To imagine God repealing the
moral Law, which is the rule of all holiness and the condemner
of all sin, would be supposing Him to release His creatures from
giving unto Him the full glory which is His due, and allowing
them to hold back a part of it at least. It supposes Him releasing
His creatures from that which is right and allowing them to do
that which is wrong. Yea, such a vile supposition reflects upon
God's very goodness, for so far from it being a boon and benefit
to His creatures, the repealing or altering the Law, which is
so perfectly suited to their highest happiness, would be one of
the sorest calamities that could happen. If God had rather that
Heaven and earth should pass away than that the least jot or tittle
of the Law should fail (Matt. 5:18), how steadfastly should we
resist every effort of Satan's to rob us of this Divine Rule,
weaken its authority over our hearts, or prejudice us against
it.

In the light of what has been
pointed out, how unspeakably horrible, what vile blasphemy, to
imagine that the Son Himself should come from Heaven, become incarnate,
and die the death of the Cross, with the purpose of securing His
people a rescinding or abating of the Law, and obtain for them
a lawless liberty. What! Had He so little regard for His Father's
interests and glory, for the honour of His Law, that He shed His
precious blood so as to persuade the great Governor of the world
to slacken the reins of His government and obtain for His people
an impious license? Perish the thought. Let all who love the Lord
rise up in righteous indignation against such an atrocious slur
upon His holy character, and loathe it as a Satanic slander--no
matter by whom propagated. Any Spirit-taught reader must surely
see that such a wicked idea as the affirming that Christ is the
One who has made an end of the Law, is to make Him the friend
of sin and the enemy of God!

Pause for a moment and weigh
carefully the implications. How could God possibly vindicate the
honour of His great name were He to either repeal or abate that
law which requires love to Him with all our hearts? Would not
this be clearly tantamount to saying that He had previously required
more than was His due? Or, to put it in another form, that He
does not now desire so much for His creatures as He formerly did?
Or, to state the issue yet more boldly--Should God (since the
Cross) relinquish His rights and freely allow His creatures to
despise Him and sin with impugnity? Look at it another way: to
what purpose should Christ die in order to secure an abatement
from that Law? What need was there for it? or what good could
it do? If the Law really demanded too much, then justice required
God to make the abatement; in such case the death of Christ was
needless. Or if the Law required what was right, then God could
not in justice make any abatement, and so Christ died in vain.

But so far from Christ coming
into this world with any such evil design, He expressly declared,
"Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto
you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but
whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great
in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:17-19). This is the very
thing He condemned the Pharisees for all through this Chapter.
They, in effect, taught this very doctrine, that the Law was abated,
that its exacting demands were relaxed. They affirmed that though
the Law did forbid some external and gross acts of sin, yet it
did not reprehend the first stirrings of corruption in the heart
or lesser iniquities.

For instance, the Pharisees
taught that murder must not be committed, but there was no harm
in being angry, speaking reproachfully, or harbouring a secret
grudge in the heart (Matt. 5:21-26). That adultery must not be
committed, yet there was no evil in having lascivious thoughts
(vv. 27-30). That we must not be guilty of perjury, yet there
was no harm in petty oaths in common conversation (vv. 33-37).
That friends must not be hated, yet it was quite permissible to
hate enemies (vv. 43-47). These, and such like allowances, they
taught were made in the Law, and therefore were not sinful. But
such doctrine our Saviour condemned as erroneous and damning,
insisting that the Law requires us to be as perfect as our heavenly
Father is perfect (v. 48), and declaring that if our righteousness
exceeded not that of the Scribes and Pharisees we could not enter
the kingdom of Heaven (v. 20). How far, then, was our holy Lord
from abating God's Law, or lessening our obligations to perfect
conformity to it!

The fact of the matter is (and
here we will proceed to adduce some of the proofs for our statement
at the beginning of the fourth paragraph), that Christ came into
the world for the express purpose of giving a practical demonstration,
in the most public manner, that God is worthy of all that love,
honour, and obedience which the Law requires, and that sin is
as great an evil as the punishment of the Law implies, and thereby
declared God's righteousness and hatred of sin, to the end that
God might be just and yet the Justifier of every sincere believer.
This Christ did by obeying the precepts and suffering the death-penalty
of the Law in the stead of His people. The great design of the
incarnation, life and death of our blessed Lord was to maintain
and magnify the Divine government, and secure the salvation of
His people in a way that placed supreme honour upon the Law.

The chief object before the
beloved Son in taking upon Him the form of a servant was to meet
the demands of the Law. His work here had a prime respect to the
Law of God, so that sinners should be justified and sanctified
without setting aside its requirements or without showing the
least disregard to it. First. He was "made under the Law"
(Gal. 4:4)--amazing place for the Lord of Glory to take! Second,
He declared, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is
written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy Law
is within My heart" (Psa. 40:7, 8)--enshrined in his affections.
Third, He flawlessly obeyed the commands of the Law in thought,
and word, and deed: as a child He was subject to His parents (Luke
2:51); as Man He honoured the Sabbath (Luke 4:16), and refused
to worship or serve any but the Lord His God (Luke 4:8). Fourth,
when John demurred at baptising Him, He answered "Thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15)--what
a proof of His love for the Lawgiver in submitting to His ordnance!
What proof of His love for His people in taking His place alongside
of them in that which spake of death!

The truth is that it was God's
own infinite aversion to the repeal of the Law, as a thing utterly
unfit and wrong, which was the very thing which made the death
of Christ needful. If the Law might have been repealed, then sinners
could have been saved without any more ado; but if it must not
be repealed, then the demands of it must be answered by some other
means, or every sinner would be eternally damned. It was because
of this that Christ willingly interposed, and "magnified
the Law and made it honourable" (Isa. 42:21), so securing
the honour of God's holiness and justice, so establishing His
law and government, that a way has been opened for Him to pardon
the very chief of sinners without compromising Himself to the
slightest degree. "As many as are of the works of the Law
are under the curse . . . . Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the Law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:10, 13).

Christ loved His Father's honour
far too much to revoke His Law, or bring His people into a state
of insubordination to His authority; and He loved them too well
to turn them adrift from "the perfect Law of liberty."
Read carefully the inspired record of His life upon earth, and
you will not discover a single word falling from His lips which
expresses the slightest disrespect for the Law. Instead we find
that He bade His disciples do unto men whatsoever we would that
they should do unto us because "this is the Law and the Prophets"
(Matt. 7:12). In like manner Christ's Apostles urged the performance
of moral duties by the authority of the Law: "Owe no man
any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the Law" (Rom. 13:8); "Children, obey
your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father
and mother; which is the first commandment with promise"
(Eph. 6:1, 2). The Apostle John exhorted believers to love one
another as "an old commandment which ye had from the beginning"
(1 John 2:7). And, as we shall yet show at length, the Law is
the great means which the Spirit uses in sanctifying us.

Here, then, is a "threefold
cord" which cannot be broken, a threefold consideration which
"settles the matter" for all who submit to the authority
of Holy Scripture. First, God the Father honoured the Law by refusing
to rescind it in order that His people might be saved at less
cost, declining to abate its demands even when His own blessed
Son cried, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me."
God the Son honoured the Law by being made under it, by perfectly
obeying its precepts, and by personally enduring its awful penalty.
God the Spirit honours the Law by making quickened sinners see,
feel, and own that it is "holy, and just, and good"
(Rom. 7:12) even though it condemns them, and that, before ever
He reveals the mercy of God through Jesus Christ unto them; so
that the Law is magnified, sin is embittered, the sinner is humbled,
and grace is glorified all at once!

There are some who will go
with us this far, agreeing that Christ came here to meet the demands
of the Law, yet who insist that the Law being satisfied, believers
are now entirely freed from its claims. But this is the most inconsistent,
illogical, absurd position of all. Shall Christ go to so much
pains to magnify the Law in order that it might now be dishonoured
by us! Did He pour out His love to God on the Cross that we might
be relieved from loving Him! It is true that "Christ is the
end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believeth"
(Rom. 10:4)--for "righteousness" (for our justification),
yes--but not for our sanctification. Is it not written that "he
that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even
as He walked" (1 John 2:6), and did not Christ walk according
to the rule of the Law? The great object in Christ's coming here
was to conform His people to the Law, and not to make them independent
of it. Christ sends the Spirit to write the Law in their hearts
(Heb. 8:10) and not to set at naught its holy and high demands.

The truth is that God's sending
His Son into the world to die for the redemption of His people,
instead of freeing them from their obligations to keep the Law,
binds them the more strongly to do so. This is so obvious that
it ought not to require arguing. Reflect for a moment, Christian
reader, upon God's dealings with us. We had rebelled against the
Lord, lost all esteem for Him, cast off His authority, and practically
bid defiance to both His justice and His power. What wonder, then,
had He immediately doomed our apostate world to the blackness
of darkness forever? Instead, He sent forth His own dear Son,
His only Begotten, as an Ambassador of peace, with a message of
good news, even that of a free and full forgiveness of sins to
all who threw down the weapons of their warfare against Him, and
who took His easy yoke upon them.

But more: when God's Son was
despised and rejected of men, He did not recall Him to Heaven,
but allowed Him to complete His mission of mercy, by laying down
His life as a ransom for all who should believe on Him. And now
He sends forth His messengers to proclaim the Gospel to the ends
of the earth, inviting His enemies to cease their rebellion, acknowledge
the Law by which they stand condemned to be holy, just and good,
and to look to Him through Jesus Christ for pardon as a free gift,
and to yield themselves to Him entirely, to love Him and delight
themselves in Him forever. Is not this fathomless love, infinite
mercy, amazing grace, which should melt our hearts and cause us
to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God" which is indeed "our reasonable service"
(Rom. 12:1)?

O my Christian reader, that
God out of His own mere good pleasure, according to His eternal
purpose, should have stopped you in your mad career to Hell, made
you see and feel your awful sin and guilt, own the sentence just
by which you were condemned, and bring you on your knees to look
for free grace through Jesus Christ for pardon, and through Him
give up yourself to God forever. And that now He should receive
you to His favour, put you among His children, become your Father
and your God, by an Everlasting Covenant; undertake to teach and
guide, nourish and strengthen, correct and comfort, protect and
preserve; and while in this world supply all your needs and make
all things work together for your good; and finally bring you
into everlasting Glory and blessedness. Does not this lay you
under infinitely deeper obligations to LOVE the Lord your God
with all your heart? Does not this have the greatest tendency
to animate you unto obedience to His righteous Law? Does not this
engage you, does not His love constrain you, to seek to please,
honour and glorify Him?